Satan’s Final Revolt
Revelation 20:7-10
“Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”
For several days now we have been studying Revelation 20 and talking about the Millennium reign of Jesus Christ. Today we will move on to the next few verses that tell us about the final revolt of Satan. The main lesson that we can learn from this passage is, that a perfect environment does not produce a perfect man with a perfect heart!
Remember at the beginning of this chapter Satan was bound with a great chain and cast into the bottomless pit, the abyss, for a thousand years (Rev. 20:1-3). These verses ended with this statement: “…., so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while” (v. 3). So obviously, Satan is not around on the earth for the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ on the earth.
The Millennium begins after Satan is bound. Only saved saints in mortal bodies enter this time period. There will be no unsaved people in mortal bodies on earth at the very beginning of the Millennium! The Old and New Testament saints that have been resurrected and the saved people from the church age that were raptured before the Tribulation began, will come back with Christ to earth in immortal and incorruptible bodies, glorified bodies like Jesus’ body (See 1 Corinthians 15:50-58; 1 John 3:1-3). We will not have the ability to reproduce and have children during this time.
But all those who saved mortal saints that enter the Millennium, will be able to marry and have children. And remember they can live hundreds of years during this time in a restored earth that is what it was like before Noah’s flood. Millions upon millions of children will be born, who will also grow up, marry and have more children.
The world will be under the perfect rule of Jesus Christ, who literally is seated on the throne of David in the city of Jerusalem in Israel. All these children that are born in the Millennium will be born with sinful hearts and must be saved. The way of salvation will not change during this time! Jesus is and always will be the only way of salvation (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). The world will be a perfect place to live, and the conditions and environment will be filled with glorious worship of the Lord Jesus Christ everywhere!
It appears, that even in this environment, that many of the people who are born during this time, that though they will outwardly conform to the laws and rules of the King and His Kingdom, inwardly they will reject His salvation! These are the people that form the “nations that are in the four corners of the earth”, that are called Gog and Magog (v. 8). This is not a reference to Ezekiel 38-39, but is way of saying that these people have the same rebellious hearts as those who rebelled earlier, that will not submit to the authority of King Jesus!
When Satan is released for his short time, this deceiver will be deceived into thinking that he still has a chance to defeat King Jesus. He goes to the “four corners” of the earth finding all those who think they are tired of keeping all the “crazy” rules of the Kingdom and want to chose to live openly in their rebellion and sin! Satan deceives them into thinking that can defeat King Jesus too, and puts them together as a great army numbered as the “sand of the sea”. He leads them to the Holy City, Jerusalem, where Jesus is sitting on His throne and they surround the “beloved city”.
It only takes God a part of a verse to destroy this army with fire from heaven (v. 9). Satan is then cast into the lake of fire where he will be “tormented day and night forever and ever”, along with the beast and the false prophet! This is the end of Satan’s final revolt against God! My friend, again I remind you, that “if God be for us who can be against us…” (Romans 8:31-29).
God bless!
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